Google right to leave China

Google announced Jan. 12, that it will no longer operate in China unless the country changes its policy of restricting information.

Executives with the company said Google’s services should be unfiltered and uncensored.

The Chinese government blocks its citizens from accessing programs such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Google is the modern world’s best-known gateway to information and ideas. Should China challenge Google’s grit, it would realize that the free world values what China refuses to allow: free, independent thinking and the resources to obtain it.

China can regulate its people as much as it wants, but more control will ultimately have a negative effect on the country.

All aspects of society, from business to education, will suffer a loss of productivity, which could result in the creation of a stagnant growth curve.

China seems willing to accept the possible consequences in order to remain restrictive.

Is the country hiding something ugly from surfacing in the future, or could it be unsuccessfully trying to erase a dark part of its past?

Whatever the reason may be, China is hurting itself and denying one of the growth gateways that has carried it to where it is.

Accusations that the Chinese government was behind a slew of recent cyber attacks on free speech activists have only exacerbated the situation.

One reason China filters Google is to alleviate or block information about this very type of debacle.

It’s peculiar to think that by restricting access to written text or video broadcasts about news events the people of China would be content to accept the loss of Google or limited freedom.

Issues such as this should make Americans thankful to have a government with such strong demands for freedom.

Google should be applauded for taking action and defending the free speech of the Chinese users who desire it.